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[Sep 2005]
Ceramic Fuel Cell Trial for Tasmania
Powerco Ltd and Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd (CFCL) will conduct a field trial of CFCL's fuel cell powered domestic generator in Tasmania, Australia.
This will be the second field trial in the deal between energy developer CFCL and Powerco. The first trial is to be conducted in Wellington, New Zealand.
Powerco Chief Operating Officer Richard Krogh said that the company had chosen Tasmania due to the high level of support for natural gas that existed within the State. "In Tasmania," explained Mr Krogh, "we have a State Government committed to growing its energy infrastructure and more specifically partnering with Powerco in the roll-out of the new gas distribution network. This creates the type of environment which encourages development of cutting edge technology like CFCL's combined heat and power unit."
The CEO of CFCL, Brendan Dow, commented: "We're excited about conducting a trial in Tasmania. With our other field trial partners and sites, we now have a broad range of field trial sites, in Australia, New Zealand and Germany. We expect, over the next few months, to start generating some useful data - and learning a lot - from these trials.
"We know the trials won't be perfect and we're realistic enough to expect some challenges. That's what the trials are all about: an opportunity to work with committed partners to test our technology in 'real world' conditions, and feed back our findings into our ongoing development work, ultimately leading to more reliable fuel cells."
Powerco and CFCL currently plan to deliver the fuel cell unit to Tasmania in December this year. In the meantime, the first unit has been installed at IRL's premises in Wellington and is undergoing commissioning.
www.cfcl.com.au
ENDS